Former Syracuse lacrosse player and current ESPN analyst Paul Carcaterra recently answered questions about a number of topics in college lacrosse on the Baltimore Sun's lacrosse blog. One of the questions focused on the matchup between the No. 3 Syracuse Orange and the No. 1 Virginia Cavaliers at 4:30 p.m. Sunday in Charlottesville, Va. The game will be televised by ESPN.

Here is an excerpt from the Q&A:

Will Sunday’s annual series between Syracuse and Virginia be another typical game between the two best teams in the country or are the Orange looking up at the Cavaliers because of the losses they suffered via graduation?

I think it’s an uphill battle. There’s so much yet to be determined with this Syracuse team. They lost seven senior All Americans from a year ago. So the face of the program, the leadership, and the actual play of this team is drastically different, and I don’t mean that with negative connotations. It’s just different. The way they play defense, the way they clear the ball, their offensive approach. I think this is a team that has a lot of potential and can surprise some teams, but I think going into this game, this is not your typical Syracuse-Virginia game with tons of proven firepower on both teams. There’s proven firepower with Virginia. You have [senior attackman and reigning Tewaaraton Award winner] Steele Stanwick, you have [senior attackman] Chris Bocklet, you have [senior midfielder] Colin Briggs and [sophomore midfielder] Rob Emery. Those are guys that are elite offensive players. You have five or six of those guys on Virginia, whereas you might only have two on Syracuse. And I think just the timing of this matchup heavily favors Virginia. But I wouldn’t be surprised at the end of the year that if these two teams were to play again, it would be a typical Syracuse-Virginia game. And I say that because I really do believe that Syracuse has talent, and when they put it together, they’re going to be fun to watch. Regardless of the outcome, I think lacrosse fans are in for a treat because of the tempo of the two programs. They like to get up and down, they like to take chances.

Carcaterra also talked about the late start to Cornell's season and whether or not the Big Red will be affected.